Aug 20, 2021 4 min read

A new multi-million dollar electronic filing system will soon be in use for legal documents at Washington County Courthouse, but the prothonotary who will have to implement the changes feels like she wasn’t consulted and thinks another system would work better.

County commissioners during their Thursday morning meeting voted unanimously to select Thomson Reuters as facilitator of the courthouse’s new case management system and will pay the company $1.56 million to purchase it, with another $350,000 in annual maintenance.

Before voting in favor of purchasing it, Commission Chairwoman Diana Irey Vaughan said the new system can be integrated across multiple row offices in the courthouse. She added the system was the preference of President Judge John DiSalle and Judge Michael Lucas – including the county’s board of judges – because they think it would offer the best “automation, administration and access for the public.”

Irey Vaughan said Washington County Bar Association also suggested using the software company.

“The court has had a number of issues in, frankly, completing the work in the judicial system,” Irey Vaughan.

The new system, Irey Vaughan said, will be integrated with all of the row offices in the courthouse, allows for e-filing by users, could reduce staff in the prothonotary’s office because of automation and will allow for paperless storage.

“It is not a standalone system or software package. This is an integrated package that can be used throughout our judicial system,” Irey Vaughan said. “In confidence, I vote yes.”

Commissioners Larry Maggi and Nick Sherman made no comments about the new case management system before voting yes.

Prothonotary Laura Hough, who will be most affected by the changes, said she and her office researched software options for 17 months, but were never consulted in the final decision. She had suggested they use Paperless Solutions, which was one of three bids that received final consideration, but it was not placed on the agenda for a vote Thursday.

“I have been working diligently to improve and modernize the prothonotary’s office,” Hough said during public comment before the vote. “We have made much progress and it’s sad to see the ability to operate my office has been impeded by others.”

She said her preferred company with Paperless Solutions would cost about $576,000 over 10 years.

“They never talked to me about any of the software,” Hough said after the meeting. “They’ve refused to talk to us.”

Irey Vaughan said the commissioners had the department heads and newly-elected row officers meet in late 2019 to discuss such changes. But Hough said that was before they took office in January 2020 and didn’t have a firm grasp on how to implement new ideas.

Register of Wills James Roman also said he was not asked about the software purchase even though he had instead suggested purchasing a different one for his office at a cheaper price. He said the program the commissioners chose is not currently equipped to handle his office’s needs and may take some time to implement.

“I was not consulted on the software,” Roman said. “There is no transparency with the board of commissioners.”

Hough was disappointed the commissioners chose to listen to DiSalle’s feedback rather than hers, even though the software will be utilized the most by her office, which tracks and stores legal documents filed in the courthouse. Hough added the Thomson Reuters option has “some workflows missing” and is “not agile” compared to Paperless Solutions. All systems have e-filing options available, Hough said, but she thinks Paperless Solutions is “more compatible” for their needs.

“It’s my office,” Hough said after the meeting. ” I think I should be able to select it. We’ve done the research.”

The contract will initially run for 12 months and then be automatically renewed every year unless either side terminates the agreement with a 30-day notice. It was not immediately known when the courthouse would begin migrating from its current case management system to the Thomson Reuters software.

Also during the meeting, the commissioners voted to transfer their solicitor contract with Steptoe & Johnson law firm in Southpointe to Vorys, Sater, Seymour and Pease of Columbus, Ohio, after solicitor Jana Grimm said she had changed law firms. The details in the contract with the solicitor, which will continue until January 2024, will remain the same. The commissioners voted in March to increase the solicitor’s pay by 33% to $189,000 per year because the law firm was expected to be asked to perform more duties for the county.